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Peruvian director Cristián Jiménez’s charm-filled romance “Bonsai” is just a few minutes old when you discover, during a voice-over, that a key character will die at the end. But this spoiler should have little effect on viewers’ enjoyment. Based on a popular Chilean novella, the story concerns Julio (Diego Noguera), a college lit major when we first meet him.

The film goes back and forth between Julio’s college romance with Emilia (Nathalia Galgani), who likes him to read her Proust in bed, and his affair eight years later with Blanca (Trinidad González), whose apartment is across the hall from his. (To make sure you don’t get confused, the young Julio is clean-shaven, and the older one has a unremarkable beard.)

Anyway, the bearded Julio is offered a job transcribing a handwritten novel by a leading writer. The job falls through, but Julio doesn’t tell his girlfriend. Instead, he passes off a novel-in-progress of his own as the other man’s work. In the process, he recalls with pleasure his time with Emilia. This isn’t a story of Shakespearean proportions, but it’s a sweet peg for this complex, carefully constructed gem.